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The Ruins

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Overview

Eerie, terrifying, unputdownable-Scott Smith's first novel since his best-selling A Simple Plan ("Simply the best suspense novel of this year-hell, of the 1990s"-Stephen King).

Editorial Reviews

At long last, Smith follows up his bestselling first novel, A Simple Plan (1993), the film of which received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay, with a stunning horror thriller. Four American friends on vacation in Cancun, Mexico Jeff, Amy, Eric and Stacy meet a German tourist, Mathias, who persuades them to join his hunt for his younger brother, Henrich, last seen headed off with a new girlfriend toward some ruins. The four soon regret their impulsive decision after they find themselves lost in the jungle and freaked out by signs that they're headed for danger. Smith builds suspense through the slow accretion of telling details, until a deadly menace starts taking its toll, leaving the survivors increasingly at each other's throats. While admirers of such classic genre writers as John Wyndham or Algernon Blackwood may find the horror less suggestive than they might wish, the eerie atmosphere and compelling plot should appeal to fans of ABC's hit TV series Lost, who will help propel this page-turner up bestseller lists. Ben Stiller's production company has bought film rights. 100,000 first printing. (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Scott Smith

Scott Smith was educated at Dartmouth College and Columbia University. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

  • 2 stars out of 5

    Posted April 21, 2008 by amber, palm harbor

    This book was not what I was expecting. It will make a better not so good horror movie. No suspense, guessed what was coming around every corner. The plot was awful. This is the first and last book I will read by this author.

  • 3 stars out of 5The Ruins

    Posted June 22, 2008 by scarlett, mystery

    This book is really in the Horror genre complete with unbelievable and gory details. Would you really be discussing the merits of cannibalism after being isolated only a few days? I'm glad Stephen King liked it, but I much preferred "A Simple Plan" for its credible descent into murder.

  • 3 stars out of 5A quick summer read

    Posted May 14, 2009 by Dorothy, Pittsburgh

    I agree it was rather predictable, but an interesting concept all the same. I enjoyed thinking afterwards how I would have reacted in a similar situation. Don't bother watching the movie that was made-the whiny girls in the book are really whiny in the film, and become very annoying very quickly.

Additional Info

Imprint

Random House

Filesize

854.59 KB

Number of Pages

336

eBook ISBN

9780307266040

Excerpt from: The Ruins by Scott Smith

They met Mathias on a day trip to Cozumel. They'd hired a guide to take them snorkeling over a local wreck, but the buoy marking its location had broken off in a storm, and the guide was having difficulty finding it. So they were just swimming about, looking at nothing in particular. Then Mathias rose toward them from the depths, like a merman, a scuba tank on his back. He smiled when they told him their situation, and led them to the wreck. He was German, dark from the sun, and very tall, with a blond crew cut and pale blue eyes. He had a tattoo of an eagle on his right forearm, black with red wings. He let them take turns borrowing his tank so they could drop down thirty feet and see the wreck up close. He was friendly in a quiet way, and his English was only slightly accented, and when they pulled themselves into their guide's boat to head back to shore, he climbed in, too.

They met the Greeks two nights later, back in Cancun, on the beach near their hotel. Stacy got drunk and made out with one of them. Nothing happened beyond that, but the Greeks always seemed to be turning up afterward, no matter where they went or what they were doing. None of them spoke Greek, of course, and the Greeks didn't speak English, so it was mostly smiling and nodding and the occasional sharing of food or drinks. There were three Greeks--in their early twenties, like Mathias and the rest of them--and they seemed friendly enough, even if they did appear to be following them about.

The Greeks not only didn't know English; they couldn't speak Spanish, either. They'd adopted Spanish names, though, which they seemed to find very amusing. Pablo and Juan and Don Quixote was how they introduced themselves, saying the names in their odd accents and gesturing at their chests. Don Quixote was the one Stacy made out with. All three looked enough alike, however--wide-shouldered and slightly padded, with their dark hair grown long and tied back in ponytails--that even Stacy had a hard time keeping track of who was who. It also seemed possible that they were trading the names around, that this was part of the joke, so the one who answered to Pablo on Tuesday would smilingly insist on Wednesday that he was Juan.